A recent report has recommended that the UK needs an additional 2,000 hospital consultants and 1,000 junior doctors to help tackle the backlog of patients caused by the pandemic. This comes as the country’s National Health Service (NHS) struggles to cope with staff shortages and increasing demand for healthcare services. The report, commissioned by the NHS Confederation, highlights the urgent need for investment and recruitment in the healthcare sector, to ensure that patients receive timely and high-quality care, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. In this article, we delve deeper into the report’s findings and explore the potential implications of the shortage of healthcare professionals in the UK.
A recent report in Ireland recommends creating an additional 2,000 hospital consultant and 1,000 junior doctor positions by the end of the decade. The report further advises that there is a “clear need” to improve the working environment of junior doctors by improving IT services, providing rest, showering and changing facilities, and other forms of support, such as healthy food and drink. The report also points out that despite increasing the number of consultant posts, the health service continues to rely heavily on doctors who are not in training posts. This dependency is growing despite recommendations from previous medical reports. Additionally, there is a continued over-reliance on doctors to provide care that other healthcare professionals are better placed to deliver “in a more patient-centric and efficient manner”.
The National Taskforce on the Non-Consultant Hospital Doctor (NCHD) workforce was established by the Minister for Health with the intention of putting sustainable workforce planning strategies in place. These strategies aim to improve the working experience of junior doctors and help to retain them in the health service. The significant difficulty that the Health Service Executive (HSE) experiences in recruiting and retaining enough medical and other staff is recognised as one of the main causes of hospital overcrowding. Ireland has proportionately fewer consultants than other healthcare services.
In its interim recommendations, the taskforce recommends that annual targets for increasing consultant and NCHD numbers should be agreed upon. The report advises that the number of consultant positions be increased to 6,000 by 2030 from 4,152 last December, which is a target ratio of 110 consultants per 100,000 of the population. Additionally, the number of NCHDs in training should be increased to 5,800-6,000, and there should be one consultant for every 1.3 NCHDs by 2030. At the end of the previous year, there were 8,269 NCHDs, but only 5,000 of them were in training posts.
Of the 4,152 approved consultant posts last December, only 3,230 were filled permanently and 478 were filled by locums. Of the 444 vacancies, 76 per cent had been vacant for less than one year. The report further points out that there exists a mismatch between the number of specialists exiting postgraduate training over the last year (687) against the 1,195 consultant posts that were newly approved or replaced, which is one of the contributing factors to the vacancy rate for consultant posts.
The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly recognised that significant change is required to improve the NCHD experience and work-life balance. “They are a critical part of our workforce and need to be supported to ensure they are retained in our health service,” he said. The Minister has written to the CEO of the HSE, seeking full implementation of the recommendations as a priority. The report also recommends standardised induction for all new NCHDs and additional induction of the 500 or so international medical graduates starting each year in Irish hospitals.
The report further recommends that doctors should have access to healthy food 24/7 and that those on overnight shift should have access to a private space for rest, including a bedroom for shifts over 12 hours. The National Taskforce on the NCHD workforce has made these recommendations in good faith and in the interest of creating a more sustainable and efficient healthcare system. It is now up to the relevant authorities to ensure that these recommendations are implemented.
